- Claims they were 'sham contractors' denied leave pay and superannuation
- But ISGM argues they got $61 an hour compared with $35 on employee award
- Therefore if they win the lawsuit, company will counter-sue for the difference.
Thousands of tradies have been warned they could be sued for $642 million if they win a class action lawsuit against a Telstra contractor.
Instead, they were employed as individual contractors and had to pay for their tools and transport to and from sites where they did Telstra maintenance.
The lawsuit, led by former contractor Robert Mutch, demands back payment of sick leave, annual leave, and superannuation in accordance with the relevant award.
However, ISGM warned it would be forced to counter-sue all the tradies if the claim was successful because it paid them far more than the award.
Tradies have until May 7 to opt out, according to a letter they will be sent, or they will automatically become part of the lawsuit and could be counter-sued.
Documents filed with the Federal Court in Melbourne by ISGM argue it paid more than $1.55 billion to 3,450 workers in 2011 to 2020.
The company's modelling suggested the subcontractors were paid an average of $61 an hour compared to a casual award rate of just $35 an hour.
'This would mean that ISGM would effectively claim back up to $1.55 billion paid to thousands of Australian small businesses over the last nine years and would then pay the award-based employee entitlements to individual employees,' it said.
'This could be catastrophic for small business operators.'
ISGM said it could not afford to effectively pay workers twice for the same work, and would have no choice but to sue for the difference.
Full story: The Daily Mail Australia
